The State of Local News Project

Tracking and analyzing changes to the local journalism landscape across the country.

We track closures and mergers of local news outlets, as well as the emergence of new local news providers, across newspapers, digital, ethnic media, and public broadcasting. We identify local news deserts and communities in danger of becoming news deserts. We are a forum for thought leadership and the latest research on changes to the journalism landscape and practice.

Past Reports

2022: Expanding News Deserts, Growing Gaps, Emerging Models

2020: News Deserts and Ghost Newspapers: Will Local News Survive?

2018: The Expanding News Desert

2017: Thwarting the Emergence of News Deserts

2016: The Rise of a New Media Baron and the Emerging Threat of News Deserts

Thought Leadership

New findings on news deserts, shifting business models and what needs to be done to sustain local journalism.

Research Insights

Interviews with researchers examining issues related to the information needs of communities and developments in local journalism.

Quarterly Updates

(Coming January 2024) The State of Local News Project produces quarterly updates on changes and trends in the local news industry. To receive these updates, please subscribe here .

Latest Research

Research Faculty and Staff

Tim Franklin

Sr. Associate Dean, Director, Medill Local News Initiative, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News

Franklin leads the Medill Local News initiative, a series of programs designed to bolster the sustainability of local news. Before joining Medill, Franklin was President of The Poynter Institute. He's been the top editor of The Indianapolis Star, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun. He was as a Washington Managing Editor of Bloomberg News. He's a member of the Illinois Local Journalism Task Force.

Penelope Muse Abernathy

Visiting Professor and Researcher

Penelope Muse Abernathy, a visiting professor at Northwestern University, is a former senior executive at The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, who specializes in researching local journalism. She is the author of two books and five reports, including The State of Local News (Northwestern University: 2022).

Sarah Stonebely

Director, State of Local News Project

Sarah Stonbely (PhD, New York University, 2015) is the director of the State of Local News Project. Sarah’s expertise is in journalism culture and practice, local news ecosystems, media policy, and research methodology.

Zach Metzger

Database Manager

Metzger is responsible for managing, updating, and analyzing the different databases of news organizations maintained by the Medill Local News Initiative. He is also currently pursuing his PhD at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Srishti Bose

Research Associate

Bose is responsible for coordinating the design, data analysis, and ethnic media section of the State of Local News. She is a Medill School of Journalism graduate with a degree in Media Innovation and Content Strategy. Before her current role, Bose practiced as a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer in the Fin-Tech and Retail space.

George Stanley

Project Manager, 2023 State of Local News Report

Stanley joined the 2023 State of Local News Report after stepping down in January as editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and regional editor of 11 Gannett dailies. Under Stanley's guidance, the Journal Sentinel received virtually every major national journalism award including 3 Pulitzer Prizes and 10 Pulitzer Finalists. In October, he became CEO of the nonprofit newsroom Wisconsin Watch.

Larry DeGaris

Executive Director, Medill Spiegel Research Center

DeGaris works with Ed Malthouse and Spiegel's team of post-docs and affiliated faculty to run the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index and other local news related research projects. With a background in market research and brand partnerships, he helps local news organizations use research to make decisions about revenue models, business portfolios, audience development, and products and processes.

Mark Caro

Editor

Caro is an author (The Foie Gras Wars, The Special Counsel: The Mueller Report Retold) and former longtime Chicago Tribune culture reporter, columnist and critic. He talks with prominent creative people on his weekly Caropop podcast and writes for Chicago magazine and other outlets. He was a journalism Cherub at Northwestern’s National High School Institute a long time ago.

Joe Germuska

Chief Nerd

Germuska runs Knight Lab’s technology, professional staff and extracurricular activity. Immediately before joining the lab, he was a founding member of the Chicago Tribune’s News Apps team. He is the founder and project lead of the Census Reporter project, a website designed to make Census data easy for journalists. He also serves on the board of City Bureau, a Chicago-based civic journalism lab. His technology background is balanced by his BA in African History and MS in Product Design and Development Management, both earned from Northwestern.

Ed Malthouse

Research Director

Malthouse is the Erastus Otis Haven Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at Medill. He also has an appointment in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences. Malthouse is an expert in applied statistics, market research and media marketing.

Jaewon Royce Choi

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Choi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications. He is a quantitative social scientist whose research interests spans media engagement, digital journalism, and social implications of technology. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Nicole Tan

Research Assistant

Tan is a junior at Northwestern University majoring in journalism and legal studies. She was previously a reporter at the Medill Investigative Lab and the South China Morning Post, where she won an award for her coverage of a charity event celebrating Asian culture. She was also a print managing editor at The Daily Northwestern.

Annie Xia

Research Assistant

Xia is a junior at Northwestern University studying journalism and data science. She was previously a reporter with Heatmap News.

Mitra Nourbakhsh

Research Assistant

Mitra Nourbakhsh is a sophomore studying Journalism and International Studies with a minor in Data Science at Northwestern University. She is a writer and editor for North by Northwestern magazine and has interned at PublicSource, a Pittsburgh local news group.

Alex Perry

Research Assistant

Perry is a Medill senior double majoring in journalism and economics with a minor in data science. She previously served as The Daily Northwestern's editor-in-chief and has interned at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Information. ProPublica named her an Emerging Reporter in 2022. She's currently a part-time copy editor for Axios.